Portable HF Station in a 5.56 Ammo Can

Last weekend, I spend a few days up North near Rovaniemi Finland at 66°North. I took the Yaesu FT-891 out for two days operating man portable with the solar powered Field Station. This post is about how I transported my station during the hikes on that trip, and how we might make that process better.

Here is my rucksack including the station, snacks, water, tools, … This is the day pack version of it. I have a similar setup for multi-day hikes and camping which uses a framed rucksack.

The original idea was to mount everything permanently inside the ammo can. Perhaps I’m still going to do that however, this trip I had a new idea. I was wondering if it’s a better idea to mount a battery, charge controller, audio interface and Raspberry Pi permanently inside the ammo can, within a removable sleeve!? The radio would be stored and transported inside the ammo can. Then when we need the radio, we take the radio out of the ammo can, placing it on top of (like a table), when I want to use it.

The ammo can would still offer the EMP protection (with rubber gasket replaced with metal gasket), remain water-tight, but it would offer more ergonomic way of carrying and using the radio. It’s just an idea, but maybe you all might tell me what you think of it.

Here are some pictures of how I used the setup during the past weekend.